5 of the best iPod speaker docks

The iPod is nine years old today. Over those nine years, Apple's world-beating music player has spurned a litter of accessories, many of them speaker docks. These five represent the zenith of the latest generation…

Arcam rCube
£500, www.arcam.co.uk
Arcam reckons the rCube is "the world’s best speaker dock” and it certainly looks the part. There’s 90W of power, professional-grade electronics, three separate amps, and built-in Kleer wireless streaming. Oh, and it’s fully portable too, with up to eight hours of on-the-go use.

Audyssey South of Market Audio Dock
£tbc, www.audyssey.com

Audyssey specialises in clever calibration tech for home cinema gear – and we’re pretty sure a lot of that know how has been squeezed into its forthcoming South of Market dock (US$400 in the US, and due in the UK next month). The 200W system has wireless streaming, EQ and built-in mics for Skyping.

Sound Freaq Sound Platform
£200, www.soundfreaq.com
The monolithic Sound Platform is engineered to produce accurate sonics and natural-sounding bass from a small box. All mod-cons are present, such as wireless streaming and EQ, but the masterstroke is a downloadable iPad app lets you use Apple’s tablet as a nifty touchscreen remote.

Gear4 AlarmDock Halo
£100, www.gear4.com
Trying out 300 different button combos should be reserved for Tekken, not trying to arrange a wake-up call on a clock radio. Veteran add-on outfit Gear4 to the rescue with this "intelligent" dock that migrates time and alarm settings from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Its built-in sub gives it bottom end that belies its size, while the FM tuner can be operated via your iDevice's screen.

Klipsch iGroove SXT
£130, www.klipsch.com
A top choice if you don’t want to break the bank but still want great sonics pushed into your lugholes, the iGroove SXT serves up a beautifully balanced sound with clean drums and sweet vocals. Its bass isn’t as beefy as some larger, pricier models, but the compact size and solid build balance the scales.

Comments

mahmoud fahmy

2 years ago

I actually bought a phillips DS8550 a few days ago because the only CD compatible JVC which was perfect for me cuz I couls use my vast CD collection at a much cheaper price thanm I paying for these very fancy but very normal it hAs good sound but its vvery avberaGe in options amd even sound as I use my ipod in my car m$ostly and on my logic3 alarm.